speaker boehner sounding somewhat optimistic. the president says that he is even open to some good ideas from republicans. he said he will not slam the door in their faces. but, again, the bottom line, the president not wanting these bush era tax cuts to be extended to wealthy americans, soledad. >> dan lothian for us this morning. before i let you go, let's talk about susan rice. obviously, you know, we see the president pretty angry, curious might be a good we to describe it, too, in defending her. how do you think that's going to end up? >> reporter: that's right. it was a very full throated defense from the president, something we've not heard from him up to this point. the president sort of making the point here if you want to attack anyone, attack me. and calling the attacks from republicans, in particular, senator john mccain, who has been going after ambassador rice because he believes that the narrative that she told shortly after those attacks as they turned out not to be the case and he wants to know why. he said we're